Date of Award

2025-12-01

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Education

Advisor(s)

Carolina Teran Lopez

Abstract

This narrative literature review examines the educational experiences of transfronterizx college students along the U.S.– México border, a population largely absent from higher education scholarship. Drawing on Borderlands Theory, Anzaldúa’s frameworks, and critical perspectives on neoliberalism and militarization, this thesis highlights the border as a site of both constraint and possibility. Structural violence, surveillance, and militarization intersect with linguistic, racial, and class hierarchies to shape students’ mobility, identities, and sense of belonging. At the same time, students mobilize hybrid identities, cultural wealth, and transborder networks to assert agency, cultivate belonging, and resist deficit narratives. It also identifies persistent gaps, particularly regarding LGBTQ+, gender-dissident, and disabled students, and underscores the need for higher education policies and pedagogies that respond to the embodied, political, and cultural realities of transfronterizx students.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

52 p.

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Aylin Garcia

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